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Kites, untethered

The following photos are courtesy of Dane Adams, and he took them yesterday at the "Kite Day" covered in the previous post. I really appreciate his graciousness in allowing me to reproduce them here. Dane is a fabulous photographer, and these are great photos. Enjoy!

Adult Mississippi Kite, resplendent in tones of black, gray, and white. The bird is strikingly beautiful to us; it is a cicada's worst nightmare.

One of the two juvenile kites produced from the Hide-A-Way Hills nest.

A doting parent lands with a chitinous buzzing morsel of cicada to feed to little beggar.

Thanks again, Dane!

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Beautiful photos. I've never been lucky enough to see these (perhaps I will now that I've moved to Georgia) but I did get my life White-tailed Kite on a recent trip to California and was blown away by how gorgeous it was.

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PHOTO WORKSHOPS 2018!!

In partnership with expert photographer Debbie DiCarlo (learn about her work HERE), I will be co-leading a series of one-day and multi-day photo workshops in 2018, all in Ohio, with the exception of fabulous excursions to Pennsylvania and Costa Rica. All skill levels are welcome - especially new to intermediate photographers. In addition to learning photographic techniques for various facets of natural history - birds, insects, other animals, plants, landscapes, night skies, and more - we'll learn LOTS about natural history. Each and every trip will offer many chances to see and photograph flora and fauna that most people don't get to see - or even know exists! The more one knows about nature, the better a nature photographer they'll become! Both Debbie and I love to work with people to help improve photography skills, and would welcome you to attend any of our workshops.

For an overview of all workshops, with thorough descriptions, CLICK HERE. Also, listed below is each DiCarlo/McCormac workshop, with a hotlink to a complete description and registration information:

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About Me

I am a lifelong Ohioan who has made a study of natural history since the age of eight or so - longer than I can remember! A fascination with birds has grown into an amazement with all of nature, and an insatiable curiosity to learn more. One of my major ambitions is to get more people interested in nature. The more of us who care, the more likely that our natural world will survive.

About the photos, and permission to use

All photographs (unless otherwise noted) on these web pages are the exclusive property of Jim McCormac, and are protected under United States and International copyright laws. The photographs may not be copied, reproduced, stored, distributed or manipulated without written permission. All rights are reserved.

All photographs are available for purchase. If interested in an image(s), please feel free to contact me at: jimmccormac35 AT gmail.com

If you contact me requesting free photos, the reply may be long in coming :-)

I've been taking photographs for a few decades, but never became fully engaged in photography until 2003. That's when I got my first digital camera. Since then, photography has become a passion and a steadily growing addiction. If you delve back far enough into this blog, you will see photos that were made with a variety of Panasonic point & shoot bridge cameras. Then came a Canon Rebel DSLR, followed by a Nikon D7000. I've since returned to Canon, and use their gear exclusively. My camera bodies are a Canon 5DS-R, 5D IV, and 7D II - all are awesome cameras, each with their primary use.

The lens bag includes a number of Canon lenses that collectively cover most bases, ranging from macro to super telephotos. I do lots of macro, and my typical flash gear is the Canon Twin-Lite setup, or sometimes a diffused Canon 600 speedlite. If the gear needs three-legged stabilization, it is mounted on either an Induro tripod, attached to an Induro Gimbal head, or a Gitzo 3542 tripod and Wimberly WH-200 head. Finally, I've got a GoPro Hero, which is fully waterproof and can be used for underwater work. Sometimes I even use the camera or video feature on my iPhone 7 smartphone - it's amazing how good phone cameras have become.